The Board of The National CFIDS Foundation, Inc. (NCF) has called
for the
resignation of Dr. Kenny L. De Meirleir, Professor of Physiology and Medicine at
the Vrige Universiteit (Free University) Brussel, Belgium, Board Member of the
American Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and editor of The Journal of
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome put out by The Haworth Medical Press. Dr. DeMeirleir
both a Ph.D. and an M.D. (clinician) whom, in the board's opinion, should not be
allowed to ever see patients again.

His discovery, fully covered in the
preceeding article, is of such huge
significance that, had he published years ago when it was first discovered, further
research on this particular discovery could have saved many lives of patients who
are now deceased as well as many more who are battling for their very lives at this
very moment.

The board members of the NCF did not take this vote lightly, but
considered
the ramifications of the work that Dr. De Meirleir neglected to publish in
peer-reviewed medical journals, although he carefully put his work into patents to
protect the monetary rewards he would get from his discovery as well as in a book
he published, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Biological Approach, that was
published by CRC Press (Florida) in 2002. The book presents his research as well
as research of others on ME/CFIDS. The small hardcover volume edited by
Patrick Englebienne, Ph.D. and De Meirleir, has different authorship of each
chapter but is filled with abbreviations for a variety of molecules and receptors
that are not easy to remember without frequent reference to the full text. The
volume is very technical and should never be reviewed by those without a
moderate knowledge of molecular genetics or biochemistry. However, his
important discovery is in his own chapter and was discovered by the medical
director of the NCF. Without publication in a medical journal, it went unnoticed
and unread by most researchers in the world and did millions of ME/CFIDS
patients a huge disservice along with many wasted years.

In its discussion of the ramifications of keeping such important
work
unpublished, the board members related stories of many patients whose very lives
have been snuffed out by the effects of this research discovery. De Meirleir
capitalized on the work on Dr. Robert Suhadolnik's important discovery of the
dysregulation of the antiviral RNase-L pathway that plays a central role in
ME/CFIDS. Had DeMeirleir published his work in a medical journal, others could
have combined their own discoveries and related it to this work to further what
could be a significant therapy for ME/CFIDS. Years have been lost because of
his failure to share this information freely with the research community.
Lives have been lost and that continues to this very day.

The RNase-L is a molecule that, when it is activated, degrades
single and
double-stranded RNA that is both viral and cellular. It is vital to the apoptosis
(programmed cell death) that is going on in ME/CFIDS. Usually, the RNase L
molecule is carefully controlled by another molecule, the 37 KDalton, but this
controlling molecule has been degraded and can no longer control this antiviral
pathway. The results is the breaking apart (cleavage) or bending of some vital
intracellular proteins. Indeed, the discoverer of this pathway's upregulation, Dr.
Suhadolnik, once asked at an international conference on ME/CFIDS, why these
patients with ME/CFIDS are still alive! (Dr. Suhadolnik works at the School of
Medicine at Temple University. The medical school sold the patent rights of his
discovery to both Dr. DeMeirleir and RED Laboratories of Belgium. Both Dr.
DeMeirleir's co-editor and colleague of his book, Dr. Englebienne, and the owner
of RED Laboratories, C. V. Herst, Ph.D., worked for Dr. Suhadolnik in the past
before moving to Belgium.)

The board of the NCF has found the actions of Dr. DeMeirleir (and
his
collaborators and partners) particularly reprehensible and ask that the AACFS
dismiss him as a member immediately, that The Haworth Medical Press fire him as
a co-editor, and that other organizations around the world that have lauded him in
the past rethink their positions carefully and join our us in our dismay of someone
who would neglect those suffering in favor of his monetary agenda. The National
CFIDS Foundation, Inc., upon hearing of this important work that went
unpublished, immediately asked other researchers to look into doing this work and
have, since, funded them for the work. It is hoped that the work will be completed
soon, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, and we will be able to go on
and fund work that will show how this damaging activity can be blocked within
the body to stop the ongoing destruction which is the result of ME/CFIDS. [Ed. Note: DeMeirleir also promotes the experimental drug,
Ampligen in his book
as he has for years. He never mentions, however, the money he got for every
patient he put on the drug from Hemispherx Biopharma. It is known, from patents
owned by the manufacturer of Ampligen, Hemispherx BioPharma, that Ampligen
contributes to apoptosis (cell death) causing the road to malignancies to be far
shorter. DeMeirleir is now promoting Acclydine, another herbal extract that he
knows will help the patient feel a bit better but will, in no way, stop the process
that is leading toward ME/CFIDS ending up fatal. By helping just one arena that
is causing such a vast amount of damage in the body, the others go on unchecked
and the professor knows this all too well having protected his work in expensive
patents. Yet he, evidently, feels a compulsion to lighten the wallets of patients
with fairly useless drugs.]